Ruby Walsh ready in Cheltenham - the changes a year makes

The New Year brought me a new job and a new life when it comes to the big international sporting events featuring Ireland’s finest sportsmen and women.

This time last year, I was in a plastic tent at Prestbury Park racecourse just outside the Cotswolds town of Cheltenham.

Behind me, in another part of the biggest marquee you will ever see, an Irish band bashed out plastic Irish songs for a Guinness swilling audience who were either celebrating big wins or drowning their sorrows.

My third visit to the Cheltenham festival in as many years was as good as the previous two, despite the din in that tent. Watching Ruby Walsh charge up the most famous hill in racing aboard Hurricane Fly that afternoon really was a sight to behold.

An hour or so after the Champion Hurdle triumph, Ruby did it again aboard Quevega as the wonder horse, owned by two builders with more time than work on their hands these days, romped home for a third straight win.

Ruby was back on board both Hurricane Fly and Quevega again on Tuesday and the band bashed out all those come-all-ye’s, as my mother calls them, again in that bloody big tent. At least, I assume they did.